A Small Step for Feminism in the Workplace

This week, I did a small thing for women; I asked for tampons and pads to be stocked along with the first aid kit at work. At the office, we keep many snacks, and drinks, as well as bandaids and basic over the counter pain killers. Should I experience a sudden hunger, thirst, or papercut, I can deal with these things at the office. Should I experience a sudden gushing of blood from my vagina, however, I must leave work to journey to a place which sells feminine hygiene products, and lucky it is that I can just do that, and that I have a car to do it in.

Human resources went to some lengths to assure me that this was unusual and it is not something I should expect from a corporation and this company is going out of its way to supply basic feminine supplies. Good on them, I suppose, but it’s sad that a thing that half the human race needs on a regular basis in order to function without leaving blood about (which is a public health hazard) is not something that is a necessity the way that a snack is. I work in technology. There is much handwringing about the lack of women in this field. Somehow, the proposed solutions for this problem never include making it clear that the company cares about the basic needs of women by providing convenient access to tampons. I’m sure if I was unreasonably cranky one day, it would occur to my coworkers I might be menstruating, with all the condescension that assumption entails, but it would never occur to these same condescending people to make my menstruation any easier.

So I’m proud of myself. I asked for and got a thing which should be simple and basic as an emergency supply but somehow is not, because it’s just a woman period thing.

Elizabeth

Elizabeth is a professional belly dancer, a flaky computer scientist, and a returned Peace Corps volunteer. She lives in Georgia (the state of the U.S., not the country) but is nonetheless somehow not a combination of stereotypes from Gone with the Wind and Deliverance. Her personal blog is Coffeefied. Operafied. Fluffified. Beglittered.

Recent Comments

Amanda As an Athiest who is very involved with Job's Daughters I thoroughly enjoy it. It technically is Christian based but accepts all religions. We do... – Nov 01, 7:11 PM

Megan Let me make this clear, JOBS DAUGHTERS IS NOT A CHRISTIAN ORGANIZATION, nor is it "weird". What you have said about Job's Daughters is completely... – Apr 24, 7:48 PM

timmyson Check out <a href=https://letsencrypt.org>Let's Encrypt</a>. It's signing certificates have been accepted into Java since some recent-ish version of Java 8, and are becoming more widely... – May 14, 10:25 PM

floatingmanatee Rich people are so weird, why the hell would you put a jade egg in your vagina??? – Jan 23, 2:07 PM

SEVA Skeptics Regarding point 1: Your vote does count. But if you feel it doesn't, don't rely on others to work to make that change for you,... – Jul 26, 1:18 PM

Elizabeth By instead of I mean I live in Georgia. It may stop being a staunchly red state in my lifetime, but I'm not holding my... – Jul 25, 12:50 PM